Friday, 19 May 2017

EC to hold live demo of voting machines, VVPATs today

EC to hold live demo of voting machines, VVPATs today

Election Commission will hold a live demo of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and VVPATs in New Delhi today. The commission will also demonstrate(दिखाना) the use of EVMs and paper trail

machines. Our correspondent reports that commission will also hold a press conference to announce the schedule and procedure for EVM Challenge.

Last week, the poll body had formally thrown a challenge to political parties to prove EVMs used in the recent assembly polls were tampered-with, after several opposition parties questioned their reliability and demanded going back to the paper ballot system.

The Commission also held an all party meeting to discuss the issues relating to the reliability of the EVMs and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPATs) and electoral reforms.

Chief Election Commission Nasim Zaidi had said that parties can try and prove that EVMs can be tampered with even under strict technical and administrative safeguards as applicable during elections.

In 2009, the Commission had held out a similar challenge when it demonstrated the functioning of EVMs brought in from various parts of the country.